"If Men Could Menstruate," an essay published in Ms. Magazine in 1978, was among the texts that set the course for Abby Stewart's life.
Stewart, a University of Michigan psychology and women's and gender studies professor, was taken by the author's ability to make light of an incredibly serious topic, sexism, by making the case that men would see menstruation as something to boast about, a proxy for manhood.
The author was Gloria Steinem, the civil rights activist who was a pillar of the women's rights movement from the 1960s until her death on Sept. 2 at 92. Steinem was a terrific writer, a dogged journalist and a model for women seeking to exercise their full suite of human rights, Stewart said.
"She often wore her feminism lightly," Stewart said of Steinem. "She allowed it to be pleasurable to notice the unfairness in the world and to make fun of it and to kind of make it clear that it was something that should change, but also that you didn't have to be deadly earnest about it every minute of every day."
Stewart discussed Gloria Steinem's legacy and issues facing the contemporary fight for gender equity in this interview, which has been edited for length and clarity.
Question: Gloria Steinem led the charge for women's rights but died during a challenging time for feminism, given new restrictions on abortion access in the U.S. and prominent calls for traditional gender roles. What is the state of gender equality today?
Answer: Gloria Steinem fought for abortion rights for women. She was an important activist on behalf of those rights and made a difference in that struggle.
We got those rights and now we don't have them again. That is a very serious reality. It's serious not only for the women who need to have abortions and need to be able to make the decision about their own body and their own life, but also for all women.
This is such a symbolic representation of the fact that we no longer have control over our bodies or our life decisions. That's huge. And it's the full humanity that comes with that right that is lost when we don't have it, and that's where we are.
Apart from abortion, we also are subject to massive misogynist talk and imagery and visual representations, memes, photographs, discussions of women in the most demeaning possible way. That had stopped in the public domain, or at least declined drastically. It became not really OK to just openly express misogynist views and suddenly we're in a world where it is fine.
The third thing I'd point to is the extreme and open advocacy for women to stop working, stop voting by themselves, just vote whatever your husband thinks.
Q: Given everything you just described, will Steinem's legacy carry forward?
A: I feel like millions of women are carrying her legacy forward. Women who marched in the Women's March, women who care about abortion and are making their voices heard, women who believe in their own right to work, their right to have their own vote. They are exercising those rights.
I don't see one iconic figure like Gloria Steinem carrying this forward, but I don't think that's what she hoped for. The point was for women in general to understand their value and take themselves seriously and make demands for full humanity in their personal lives, in their work lives, in their public lives. I believe many, many women are doing that.
